Mobile

The 10 best mobile games of 2015

"Mobile" used to be a dirty word among fans of video games. Plenty secretly basked in the brilliance of modern classics like Canabalt or Angry Birds — but it was hard for many of them to take these little time-wasters seriously when the big console and PC blockbusters were vying for attention.

Those days are over. Mobile is officially a Big Deal for gaming, to the point that some of the year's very best games — the best ones overall, mind you — exist on screens small enough to fit in our pockets.

This wasn't an easy list to narrow down. We cast aside more than a few that are absolutely worth playing regardless of your age or interest level in games. But these are the standouts. The best of the best. Go out of your way to play any of the games listed below, and you won't be disappointed.

10 best mobile games of 2015

10. Star Wars: Uprising

There's been a serious dearth of Star Wars games in recent years. Uprising is one of the first to emerge in the post-Disney acquisition world, and it's a fun, loot-driven RPG that dives deep into a shadowy corner of the post-Return of the Jedi universe.

In this, the year of Star Wars' long-awaited rebirth, blasting Stormtroopers and scavenging for loot provides a ready fix for fans in search of a long-haul investment game. The only real knock against it is the lack of offline play, meaning you've got to have some Internet handy in order to visit a galaxy far, far away.

Image: Kabam

9. Alto's Adventure

Alto's Adventure is an endless downhill runner with llamas. There's nothing here that we haven't seen before. You're on a snowboard, careening down a towering mountain, and your sole focus is on keeping your momentum up.

What makes it stand out, then? Alto's Adventure is one of the most visually arresting games of the year on any platform. Its day-night cycle and constantly changing scenery provide an endless font of eye-opening freeze frames. Your little snowboarder moves at a rapid clip, but the majestic landscape in the background transforms at a slower pace. The results are astounding to behold, encouraging you to play again and again just to see what wonders your next run might reveal.

Image: Snowman

8. Pac-Man 256

The "endless runner" game is one of mobile's oldest genres, and perhaps the best fit for quick-play sessions to distract the on-the-go gamer. Pac-Man 256 takes those building blocks and forces them into the framework of a forever classic.

Inspired by a very real, screen-distorting glitch from Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man 256 challenges your pellet-eating orb to survive as long as he can on an endlessly-spawning game board while ghosts and a relentless mass of alphanumeric gobbledygook give pursuit. It's exactly the sort of "just one more try" gameplay that works brilliantly on a mobile platform. Except you're playing as Pac-Man. And that rules.

Image: Hipster Whale

7. Downwell

“It’s not flying. It’s falling… with style."

Buzz Lightyear’s catchphrase could be the tagline for Downwell, a stylish arcade title that has you plunging down the most dangerous caves ever. This twitchy title demands fast reflexes; new monsters and platforms constantly appear below you as you plummet to the bottom. You’ll pick up an arsenal of guns (that you can only fire below your feet) and power-ups as you survive each new level.

What makes Downwell so fun is its tight design, almost reminiscent of something you’d find on the original Game Boy. It doesn’t try to do a lot, but what it does is so polished that you can’t help but drop through it again and again.

Image: Moppin

6. Neko Atsume

Not all games should be fast-paced. Instead of solving puzzles or fighting monsters, why not just concern yourself with how many cats come into your backyard?

Neko Atsume was just called “The Cat Game” for the first few months of its popularity in the U.S. The Japanese game, lacking an English translation, was still a hit for its charming premise. Players need to set up the optimal backyard for feline friends by collecting cat-friendly toys and snacks and laying them out. You then check back in over the course of the day, hoping to snap a photo of a happy cat at play.

What was simple and relaxing enough proved to be a phenomenon for developer Hit Point, which translated the game into English a few months later. It’s even spawned a dog-centric clone (by a different company), though nothing can be quite as charming as the original.

Image: Hit-Point

5. Mayday! Deep Space

The all-knowing voice on the other side of a radio. It’s a gaming trope that's long been used to guide the player out of danger, someone who can see the obstacles ahead and carry you to safety.

In Mayday! Deep Space, you are the voice. Your only knowledge of the character below is a very simple display of his spaceship, rendering him as a simple blue dot. The game is played out through your vocal commands -- "turn right," "stay still," "run away” — but the story is built through your lack of information, and what your new friend tells you.

Mayday’s sci-fi chops owe much to the strong writing by author Daniel H. Wilson. While the game is a short experience, it’s completely unique to the mobile platform, a unique outing that shouldn’t be missed.

Image: Mountain Machine Studios

4. Prune

The promise of the mobile platform is realized when previously overlooked concepts become engaging games, thanks to touch controls. One of the best examples of that is Prune, a game about cultivating and trimming trees.

What may seem like a peaceful, passive experience can actually be quite challenging. Prune layers on new types of obstacles in its levels; your trees need to thrive in the face of growing shadows and dangerous blades. The final objective: get the flowering branches to the sunlight so the blossoms may drink it in.

What makes Prune even more special is its minimalist aesthetic, clearly inspired by Japanese ink wash painting. Bold reds and dark branches fill your device's screen, accented by dainty white or blue blossoms. In the chaos of the mobile gaming world, it's a serene distraction until the final level.

Image: Joel McDonald

3. You Must Build a Boat

Games that try to do too much often fail. Laying on idea after idea can easily lead to a jumbled, confusing mess. Not so with You Must Build a Boat, which is part puzzler, part dungeon crawler, part RPG, all set in a sweet, pixelated adventure.

The concepts driving You Must Build a Boat aren't new. Players slide items in a match-3-style board to queue up attacks, grab items or unlock chests as they race through a randomly generated dungeon. it was an idea first tested on mobile by YMBAB creator EightyEight Games on its previous title 10000000, but it's been massaged and finessed in this title. The variety of environments and monsters you meet, and the overarching quest give the title a sense of purpose. New daily quests also give players who have built their boat to completion a reason to return.

You Must Build a Boat is such a snappy experience that you’ll find yourself plowing through, unable to resist saying “just one more game” until your gigantic vessel is finally complete. Happy sailing.

Image: EightyEight Games LTD

2. Lara Croft Go

Lara Croft's treasure-seeking life is one of action and movement. After all, standing still is death in her line of work. Lara Croft Go therefore shouldn't work. It's a game where you set your own pace. The world moves only when you do. It re-thinks the improvised bursts of action in the Tomb Raider games as a carefully choreographed dance. Nail all the right steps at all the right moments, and the treasure is yours.

In some ways, Lara Croft Go is an amped up extension of Hitman Go, which applied similar turn-based gameplay and diorama-style artwork to Square Enix's assassin series. But Lara steps things up with a vividly detailed environment and far more variety. Its puzzles are short and easily repeated, but the rising difficulty arcs along a gentle curve that keeps you hooked even after the puzzles start leaving you stumped.

Image: Square Enix Montreal

1. Her Story

All the stands between you and the truth is a blinking cursor. Her Story is a murder mystery where all the pieces are in front of you, waiting to be discovered. Type in keywords and watch snippets of an interrogation that lead to other keywords. There's no one here to hold your hand; you've got to just listen and absorb. It's like a jigsaw puzzle assembled entirely inside your mind.

The brilliance of Her Story lies in the way it transports you to another place. Everything, from the faux-computer desktop to the artificial screen glare that sometimes reveals the faint reflection of a woman's face, is there to carry you away. You might be on the bus, or in the car, or lying in bed, but you can almost feel the fluorescent lighting of a government office buzzing in your brain as you dig deeper into the mystery.

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